The Marineland water park in Antibes (Alpes-Maritimes), which presents itself as the first marine zoo in Europe, announced this Wednesday, December 4, 2024 “its final closure plan from January 5, 2025”invoking the 2021 law which prohibits cetacean shows.
Established on the Côte d'Azur since 1970, Marineland has sparked controversy in recent months by considering the transfer of its last two orcas to a Japanese park, to the great dismay of animal defenders and the Minister of Ecological Transition Agnès Pannier -Runacher, who opposed it at the end of November.
Read also: A new orca dead at Marineland. Five questions about the controversy affecting the animal park
Fall in attendance
The plan to close the park, which employs 103 employees, was announced to the Social and Economic Committee (CSE) on Wednesday morning, said the park management. “While 90% of visitors choose to come to Marineland to admire representations of orcas and dolphins, the law of November 30, 2021, prohibiting cetacean shows, requires Marineland to consider this closure”explains the press release, which also highlights a continuous drop in attendance, rising in ten years from 1.2 million to 425,000 visitors per year.
With some 4,000 animals of 150 different species (orcas, dolphins, sea lions, turtles and numerous fish and corals), Marineland has established itself as “priority objectives” of “relocate all of its animals to the best existing structures to date”and “negotiate in the coming weeks with the social partners the social consequences of this closure project”.
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